Why Alex Marquez should no longer be undervalued after his brilliant MotoGP campaign

Alex Marquez’s impressive performances over the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend secured him the runner-up spot in the 2025 MotoGP riders’ championship with two rounds to spare. The younger Marquez clinched the ‘best-of-the-rest’ crown in Saturday’s sprint, which allowed him to go on the attack in the grand prix on Sunday and pass Francesco Bagnaia for the win.

It’s clear to everyone that 2025 has been a year of revelation for the Spaniard, given his previous run of results in MotoGP. However, the scale of progress he has made is greater than many realise. Marquez has already scored more points this year than the last two seasons combined and it’s a leap that not only reflects a faster bike, but also a rider finally at ease with himself and his surroundings.

To truly appreciate how far he’s come, it’s important to remember where he started. Prior to 2025, Marquez had just four podiums, two sprint wins and no pole positions to his name in the premier class. To go from that to fighting for the championship within a single season is an extraordinary transformation - even if, by mid-season, his title hopes were largely mathematical against his world champion brother.

Of course, when a rider suddenly finds himself battling at the sharp end, the pressure can be immense. When Marc Marquez drew a match point in Indonesia, Alex fumbled on Friday and failed to earn a direct entry into Q2 for the first time in 2025. Even in the last few races, as he edged closer to securing second in the championship, Alex’s form was mixed.

This wasn’t a sign of mental weakness, but a proof of how much he cared about that achievement. Finishing second in the championship means a lot to Alex because it proves to himself - and everyone else - what he is truly capable of.

This is a rider who has endured more hardship than most before his breakthrough year in 2025. Thrust into a plum Repsol Honda seat in his rookie 2020 season, Marquez suddenly had to lead the team after Marc’s season-ending arm injury in the opening round. He handled the situation admirably, taking two podiums and coming close to winning races, but his story was largely overshadowed by wider topics in the pandemic-hit year.

Alex Marquez made his MotoGP debut with Repsol Honda in 2020. But even before he had started his first race, Honda announced he would switch to the less-fancied LCR satellite team in 2021.

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Worse still, he never got a chance to build on that foundation after joining LCR in 2021 - a move that coincided with Honda’s decline in competitiveness in MotoGP. At Lucio Cecchinello’s squad, Marquez suffered two bruising campaigns, breaking inside the top five just once in 38 races. By mid-2022, it seemed his MotoGP career might not even survive.

That was when Gresini emerged in the picture, and the team’s family-like atmosphere gave him a new lease of life. Marquez’s rebuilding years at Gresini have already been well documented, but it’s still worth highlighting that he won two sprint races in his first year on a Ducati in 2023. In fact, he was on the grand prix podium in just his second weekend with the team. Last year, Marc’s arrival on the other side of the garage inevitably drew the spotlight, but Alex continued to grow on the year-old GP23.

This year, he finally got his hands on a truly competitive bike, and the way he delivered from day one proved that Alex Marquez always had the talent and speed to succeed in MotoGP.

Whether Alex Marquez can mount a full title challenge remains to be seen. But after his brilliant 2025 campaign, he’s proven that his ceiling is far higher than anyone anticipated. One thing is certain: he should never be undervalued again.

After all, the younger Marquez wasn’t always seen as the underdog. When he won the Moto3 title in only his second season in 2014, he was hailed as the next big thing. It was the slow start in Moto2 that cooled the hype and established the perception that he would never match Marc’s brilliance.

It’s easy to say Alex has spent his career in his brother’s shadow, but the truth is that no one on the grid has truly matched Marc in 2025. The 29-year-old deserves to be judged on his own merits, not constantly measured against his brother’s standards. If they didn’t share a surname, the world would view his achievements in a very different light.

For the most part, Alex has been consistent at extracting the maximum out of his bike. And like other top riders including Marco Bezzecchi, he has shown that he can beat Marc on a good day. There have been a few mistakes and crashes along the way this year, but nothing serious enough to detract from the strength of his season. With an average finishing position of 3.3 across grands prix and sprints, he’s been on the podium more often than not.

While Marc Marquez stole the show following his move to factory Honda, Alex Marquez has also exceeded expectations at Gresini.

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Ducati has taken notice of his progress and rewarded him with a factory-spec bike for next season. It will be the first time Gresini has run full works machinery since ending its partnership with Aprilia and becoming a Ducati satellite team in 2022.

That’s a remarkable turnaround for a rider who, not long ago, was fighting to prove he still belonged in MotoGP. The first real boost came with his two-year Gresini renewal, which allowed him to focus on performance rather than survival. Armed with a full works bike, he could emerge as an even stronger threat and potentially stake his claim at a factory Ducati seat in 2027.

Whether Alex Marquez can mount a full title challenge remains to be seen. But after his brilliant 2025 campaign, he’s proven that his ceiling is far higher than anyone anticipated. One thing is certain: he should never be undervalued again.